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Moral Philosophy

The Long View: Halfway Heaven: Diary of a Harvard Murder

John claims in this book review that suicide is not common in Ethiopia, where Sinedu Tadesse was born. At least according to the World Health Organization, the suicide rate in Ethiopia is about as high as in the US. On the other hand, it has also been twenty years, and

The Long View: The Demoralization of Society from Victorian Times to Modern Values

This book is probably best read in productive counter-point to Gregory Clark's A Farewell to Alms. It is not possible to understand the modern world without understanding both genetics and moral reform. Victorian England was the product of at least 1500 years of selection that made the most

The Long View 2002-02-02: Scary Babies

One of John's favorite themes was how slowly intellectual history moved in the twentieth century. In Spengler's Future, he said this: Even when literature and art leave a conspicuous mark, however, modernity everywhere is fundamentally a time when ever more brilliant people seem to produce less

Bioshock Videogame Review

Bioshock Videogame Review

Bioshock 2K Games $19.99 PC, XBOX 360, PS3 Caution: This review contains difficult themes and spoilers. If I could choose one word to describe Bioshock, it would be disturbing. I mean that very deliberately. After I finished playing the game for the first time, I actually felt kind of

An unlikely nexus

This month's Public Square column in First Things magazine by R. R. Reno has interesting parallels with Steve Sailer's Selecting for Conformity post. Each man expresses himself in a characteristic idiom, Reno the language of social justice and Sailer evolutionary biology, but it seems that they

Charlton on Tolkien and Rowling

Bruce Charlton unfavorably compares the moral universe of Harry Potter with the Lord of the Rings. When first I tried to read the Harry Potter series, I was put off by the chaos of its moral universe. The author did not seem to have secure moral bearings, and it seemed

The Last Airbender Review

Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko Starring Zach Tyler, Mae Whitman, Jack De Sena, Dee Bradley Baker, Dante Basco, Jessie Flower, and Mako. The mark of a good story intended for children is that adults can find it interesting as well. I still enjoy the Hobbit, and I